Info
Produced by Nino Laurenne
Recorded and mixed at Pump Studio by Nine Laurenne and Jussi Kraft
Mastered by Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers
Orchestral Arrangements by Janne Björkroth and Anton Kabanen

The battle beast from a neighbouring nation have just recently released their debut album called the for the genre very imaginative name of Steel. And as that cliché name would not be enough, have a look at the song titles: Into the Metal World, Armageddon Clan, Justice and Metal, Steel, Die-Hard Warrior, Show Me How to Die, Savage and Saint, Iron Hand and Victory, I mean come on. To be honest I was expecting something in the lines of Manowar or their peers, and to be honest that is not really something I like to listen much to.

I am not in any way a fan of anything cliché, as a matter of fact I really dislike cliché and the only time I really like them is when someone make fun of them like Freedom Call which is by far my favourite band when it comes to the metal clichés. That is really why I was so apprehensive about playing this album that it took me over a month, almost two before I even started to play the album but in the end I finally did it.

I think that you would have to be a real idiot if you did not hear after half the first song that this band is originating from Finland. They do have a typical finnish sound that easily reveal where they are from, they do belong somewhere near the genre that is usually known as power metal with their speedy melodic metal. A thing setting this band very much apart is their female vocalist who possess a voice that many metal/rock singers would kill to have. She has a very big presence in the music and is often dominating the songs with her power and energy. She is called Nitte and she does not have the most typical female voice but rather closer to singers like Udo and his likes, but still female.

The production is modern and clean, not overly polished as it still has the rawness and metallic feel to it. It is an album of about 46 minutes and eleven tracks, not too long.

The band starts by allowing us to enter the metal world and that we have do do in a very good way, this song does remind me of the album Hypertrace by Scanner, I have no idea why, it just does. The third track called The Band of the Hawk is another great track and it is my favourite on the album because of its epic melodies and arrangements, a great track. The title track is very good and show us what it is all about, I like that track very much as well. I also feel I need to mention the track Cyberspace as it is also very good, in fact all tracks on this album are good with these mentioned tracks being slightly better.

I would however say that the really strong point of this album is Nitte, the vocalist who brings the songs to life with her charismatic way of singing. It is so much energy, it is simple but at the same time it is not that simple, there are many contradictions but I think that might be the reason why this album is so good. So much power, so much melody and so much finnish.

Another thing I have found out is that this band clearly finds their inspiration in the music of the eighties and they do have quite a few elements of that era in their music while still keeping it rather modern and the production sounds very modern. Still even though it is kind of on the simpler side of things it is still quite varied and also a bit advanced. It was an album that really turned out to be a surprise to me, I had no idea that a band that seems so much cliché can be this good, I find that impressive.

To end I would just say that this is a beast that sound very finnish, it has a voice of a mad female singer and is is really good, I like this album.